About the Author:

Heather Mann is the founder of Dollar Store Crafts, and editor and publisher of CROQ Zine, a print zine devoted to hip crafting and indie business, and its companion blog. She has been a crafter and entrepreneurial spirit since she was a little girl. She is also a screenwriter and mother of three little boys. She runs CraftFail, a community blog devoted to sharing our not-so-successful crafting attempts.

About Our Contributors:

• Caroline Sanchez (Care) has been sewing since her mom taught her the basics at around six years old.  She has always been driven to CREATE, even from a very young age.  She is mommy to two little boys and one baby girl, and almost every spare moment she has is spent in her sewing room or working on her blog, Obsessively Stitching.

About the Blog:

Dollar Store Crafts was started in October 2008, and has since developed into a successful daily crafting blog with an emphasis on projects that are cheap, chic, and easy to do. Approximately 100,000 unique readers visit Dollar Store Crafts each month.

This blog is dedicated to bringing you crafts that feature materials purchased

• at dollar stores
• at dollar sections in stores
• at discount stores for $1 or less

Projects will assume you have some supplies available, including supplies that nearly everyone has on hand like:

• scissors
• glue
• tape
• paint brushes
• general office and home supplies

Crafts focus on projects that are $10 or less. Hopefully, much less!

Emphasis will be made on clear, simple directions, and projects that anyone can do!

Question: You have a lot of great ideas! Where do you get them all?

Answer: I get inspiration from other blogs, other art and design projects I see around, and of course, the dollar store itself! Also, many of the ideas featured on this blog are from other blogs! Check for links in the stories to visit them.

Question: Can you give me more instruction on how <insert project here> was done? I don’t quite get it!

Answer: If a tutorial is located at someone else’s page (as approximately 90% of the projects featured on Dollar Store Crafts are), I make a point of not including ALL the info (the complete tutorial instructions) for the project in my blog entry, because I want to encourage people to visit the original project to see how to do it.  I don’t like it when people copy my tutorials in entirety and post them on their own blogs, so I don’t do that to others.

Question: Can I submit my ideas?

Answer: YES! If you have already made your own dollar store craft, please send me a link to your blog or website (where you originally posted it), OR send me details and a photo. While I can’t promise all ideas submitted will be featured on the site, I try hard to showcase as many reader submissions as I can! My email address is heather <at> dollarstorecrafts *dot* com. Note about photos: Please don’t send ginormous photos! And, the better the photo is, the more likely I am to use your idea as a feature.

Question: Hey! That craft looks an awful lot like something I already posted on my own blog! Did you steal it?

Answer: Nope! I (and my contributors) make efforts to credit all the people involved in blog posts I write. Sometimes DSC will feature a project that strongly resembles others available on the web; chances are, we weren’t aware of yours when we wrote our post. The web is wide, my friends, and lots of ideas have been done before. Sometimes I come up with something all on my own that someone else (usually Martha Stewart!!) has already done. This is part of the mystery of the collective unconscious. But for real, I said I don’t like it when people steal my tutorials, so I don’t do that to others. If something I write strongly resembles yours, let’s just chalk it up to being kindred spirits/of the same mind, okay? ‘Cause I don’t plagiarize. But feel free to write me a friendly comment or email and point out your own awesome tutorial. If you’re nice, I’ll probably link to it. If you’re mean, I probably won’t. I believe the web is at its best when we are kind and friendly and generous. If you’ve posted a tute for free on your blog, then let the tute be free. I’ll set the example and provide all the tutorials I write for Dollar Store Crafts to you for free!

DISCLAIMER:

This blog is dedicated to bringing you fun ideas. While we would never knowingly promote a project that is flat-out dangerous, some materials and techniques are not appropriate for all ages and stages. Some materials can be toxic (glue, etc.) Please use your own good judgment when taking part in these crafts. We make no claims about the safety of any of the projects featured on our blogs, or the techniques or supplies used. We take no responsibility for what you choose to do with the information and ideas represented on Dollar Store Crafts!